In this weeks episode I sit down with the owners of Samson Barbell, a gym that has been steadily growing in Escondido. We discuss their background before the gym, what makes them different and a HUGE power lifting event coming up! Make sure to check it out July 28th!
Some of the services they offer include: Group training, classes, one on one training, sport specific training, Open gym with 24/7 access and Internship programs!

Speaker 1:

0:00

I'm elise, welcome to the shooting the breeze podcast, your neighborhood resource in North San Diego County, whether it's businesses or restaurants or things going on in your community. We have it covered. Thank you so much for tuning in and without further ado, enjoy the show.

Speaker 2:

0:28

Hey everybody. Welcome back to shooting the breeze with Geo Ruiz. I am here with two super awesome people and I'm super excited to introduce them to you. I'm here with the owners of Samson barbell and Escondido, Jake and Jenny Brown. Hey guys. Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 3:

0:41

Was it

Speaker 2:

0:44

so I'm super huge fan of you guys and I'm super huge fan of your business here in Escondido. Why don't you kind of tell me about your backgrounds individually. Maybe Jake, you want to go first?

Speaker 3:

0:56

Okay. Just in general. I know. Basically my life started when I joined the Marine Corps. Okay. Yeah, so I graduated high school a year early and went to bootcamp at 17 and then I was like in Iraq, I was in the infantry in the marine corps and so I ended up in Iraq by like 19 years old. All this on the ground in combat and stuff like that. After the marines I dealt with like a lot of ptsd and stuff like that and I needed a new outlet because I wasn't around like, oh my God, you know, they're like my brothers, you know, it was like a huge camaraderie type of thing and it was like a brotherhood and we did everything together and then when you get out of the Marine Corps you're like all by yourself again. And I just felt like isolated and I had no, like I had no outlet or any way to release stress and do things like that, you know, whereas in the marines you can like go shooting and whatever.

Speaker 3:

1:47

Um, so yeah, that was like the beginning of the personal training thing and then I just started, I got into personal training and then I got into power lifting and powerlifting became like this adrenaline rush for me or I just lift heavy and pushed myself and it kind of steered me away from getting in trouble a lot with the shirt off things. I had problems outside of the Marine Corps. Um, and a lot of drinking and stuff and then yeah, I just really took to the personal trainer field and the power lifting and next thing you know, I was thinking about opening my own place of and my first actual business that we're working on called Smash Academy fell through with, there's like three other, um, uh, owners that we're all kind of thrown our money in the pot and gonna open this big gym. Um, and my buddy avery from the marine corps bailed and that's when I was like, you know, we should probably pull out too because I was like my brother, you know what I'm saying? And if he left and I'm working with these two other guys that were good friends, but I just felt like the vibe was different, you know. And Avery was like the regulator, but um, yeah. And then we started out in 2012. Here we are.

Speaker 2:

2:56

How about you, Jenny? What's your kind of background?

Speaker 3:

2:58

Uh, was

Speaker 4:

3:01

raised in North County. Uh, I went to Oakland high school.

Speaker 2:

3:06

Cool. Yeah. So you're local

Speaker 4:

3:08

[inaudible] and um, yeah, definitely local. My mom has the shoe repair shop right here. They'd been there for like 25 years on grand and Broadway. So they no longer than that, like 28 years, right? Yeah. Yeah. So we were roaming the streets that like old, so we knew, we know everyone around here. Um, and then I met Jake. Jake was actually my trainer at La Fitness and then we decided to open up a gym.

Speaker 2:

3:41

So, um, have you always been involved in fitness? Are Interested in fitness or was that something you got into together as far as opening the gym idea?

Speaker 4:

3:51

Um, I actually, yeah, so I did swim and cheer at Incline High School, so I was pretty athletic and Jake train me getting stronger and he's the one who introduced me to like power lifting. And then from there it was just, he's been my coach.

Speaker 2:

4:08

Um, I guess maybe for somebody who doesn't know what maybe you guys could describe what is power lifting, right? Like so people hear it and they just think like, oh, they're heavy. That's really all. And maybe before I came was kind of all. I thought it was too, but there's a whole world, right? So maybe you could tell me a little more about it.

Speaker 3:

4:30

Um, power losing power lifting started from Olympic lifting Olympic lifters that do clean and jerk and the snatch and they would use squat, bench press and deadlift to train those lifts, but the snatch and clean and jerk where like the competition lifts, you know, um, well, like in the 40 years, something like that. Powerlifting became its own sport and I started out being called like odd lifts because they were the odd lists of the Olympic lifts. And then from there just took to, you know, by the eighties it was like on ABC sports and um, and then like in the nineties and early two thousands, it was on espn and things like that, you know, so I like blew up and it was primarily all male a lifting, but there's like way more females nowadays lifting and stuff. Kind of breaking that stigma of, you know, lifting weights makes you bulky kind of thing, you know.

Speaker 3:

5:21

But yeah, the powerlifting in itself is just a, it's a barbell sport and you do a squat, you do your as heavy as you can on squat, you get three attempts on squat, then you go to bench press as heavy as you can. You get three attempts to go heavier each lift and then delve to finish the day with three lifts on daily. Try just go as hard as you can each lift. They comprise all those numbers together and that's what your total is. So you have like a weight category and age category of gender and then the actual weight you've lifted and they just compare all that stuff and that's how you can place and get better and stuff like that.

Speaker 2:

5:55

Wow. So there's like meats and all the for this kind of stuff? Yep. Wow. Yep. Have you either of you ever competed in meets or is that how you. I mean, you got involved in it, right?

Speaker 3:

6:06

So out of the guys that I was going to open the business with, nobody wanted to actually compete with me. You know, they always just like to train in the gym and stuff like that, but I ended up competing at my first meet in January 2012 and that was my first time you've ever done and I, I've done like six meets, you know, it was a course of the last six years starting a business and things like that. I've taken away from my athletic training. But yeah.

Speaker 2:

6:30

So you've got, you've done around or you're getting into one soon, right?

Speaker 4:

6:34

Jake's been training me and my mates in November.

Speaker 2:

6:37

Oh Wow. That's pretty cool. Yeah, I'm nervous. But yeah, it sounds like you got a good coach. He knows what he's doing. And so, um, the name of the place is Samson barbell. Maybe you could tell me a little more on how you ended up with the name Samson barbell or what it means to you.

Speaker 3:

6:57

So there's a gym called Westside Barbell, the coach Louis Simmons. He's like a legend. Empower the thing. Not only did piloting but he has trained NFL, MLB, MLB teams, Nhl, like you name it, he's trained pro level MMA fighters, etc. But powerlifting is like his love, his main sport and he basically started his own gym doing powerlifting and stuff and I just kinda like always idolized him, you know, I learned so much stuff from the books that he wrote and the recommended and all that stuff. The education you provides. So when I wanted to open my own gym I was just trying to think like, what's a good name, you know, and I've, you know, I grew up in church a lot and so I, I always liked samson. Samson is like the strongest guy in the Bible and I was always about like being strong and brute force and like manliness, you know, all that stuff.

Speaker 3:

7:49

So samsung was just that guy and like samson's whole story in the bible about how like he gets his eyes gouged out and all this stuff and they're about to kill him, but he actually gets like one last hurrah kind of thing where you break, you know, crumbles the temple and stuff and he ends up winning in a sentence, you know, kills himself, you know, along with it all. But I think it's just a big thing of like, uh, like our mantras finish strong, you know, so it's like, you know, whenever you start we want to make sure we finish. We want to be strongly samsung, we use a lot of barbells for our training and just kind of like, came like that.

Speaker 2:

8:24

so just, and that's the meaning behind it, right? Is it, there's more to it than just a name, right? Yeah.

Speaker 3:

8:31

Not just the name, you know, it's, yeah, it's pretty, uh, pretty much

Speaker 2:

8:34

that's got me in the name. Tells you what the place is all about being strong and getting stronger. Um, why don't you guys tell me a little bit about maybe the services you guys offer here? Um, I know you, do, you know, you have an open gym and you guys do training maybe, uh, you tell me more about those.

Speaker 4:

8:50

Yeah. We have an open gym which is open 24 hours. Well, yeah. So then, you know, each member gets a key fob and they can come right through the door and it's kind of like their own little personal gym.

Speaker 2:

9:02

So you told them anytime they want they can just scan themselves in. Even if nobody's here, does that mean one to use here at 24 hours?

Speaker 4:

9:08

Nope, they're on their own. They'd come in and work out and 24 hours.

Speaker 2:

9:13

That's pretty cool. I don't know of a lot of places that do that kind of stuff.

Speaker 4:

9:15

Yeah. So. And um, and then with you one on one training, private training, a buddy training and then we do group training. What's the group training is, you know, a group, I think it maxes at 1112 and you can come. We have a 5:30 AM, 5:45 or 6:00 PM, 6:00 PM and we have casey, she's awesome trainer and she does the group training. So

Speaker 2:

9:44

how many trainers do you guys have going on here? Is there like a different training for different types of people or.

Speaker 4:

9:50

Yeah, we kind of match up the member with the, with the trainer that we think that fits better. So casey's, you're more athletic trainer? Um, she, she like a um, what did she do? Field hockey. sorry. She went to school at

Speaker 2:

10:08

uc davis field hockey scholarship, you know, like that strength conditioning, like collegiate style of strength conditioning, cool team sports and stuff, you know. So that's her style. So she has that like ncaa type mentality for training.

Speaker 4:

10:22

yeah. mike, which is your power lifter. Okay. So we just, we just team up the members with the right trainer so we just know kind of what their, what their goals are and then we just teamed them up with,

Speaker 2:

10:34

with who you think would best serve them or kind of who they could grow with the best. Right. That's really cool. So you do one on one training buddy, training groups and classes. Um, what makes you guys were what I guess, what do you think makes you different than other gyms other than, I mean the 24 hour thing. It's pretty unique, but what about your gym is different than other places? I know, I know and I can personally say about it, but I want to know what you guys think about it.

Speaker 4:

11:00

I think the customer service, the family feel like even open gym members. We are, when we are around, we help them, if they're forms off, we still help them. It's like this family feeling. So, and then we just started a kilo, cush crushers group at 11:00, monday, tuesday and thursday. So it's going to be a team and we're all gonna live together.

Speaker 2:

11:22

And who's that for? How does that work out?

Speaker 4:

11:25

Um, it's kinda for everybody. Yes, it's free

Speaker 2:

11:29

to members. People from the outside if they want to just do the team workouts. That's cool to fIgure that out with them. Um, so you said the, the family atmosphere and I, I know I'm a member here too, so I can kind of understand part of that. But now this is for the listeners that don't know about this place. Um, it's really a really cool place. I mean I came in just for a couple training just to get back in shape right before my wedding and I, and both my wife and I ended up signing up for longterm memberships just because we loved it here so much. I'm just, yesterday we were in here and uh, mike, the other trainer was uh, helping us with our forum on dell as we in here just working out and he just made some casual suggestions and it doesn't feel like some random dude at the gym coming up and telling you, hey, you know what?

Speaker 2:

12:18

I heard, uh, you know, what I saw on youtube is the best way to do uniform here. It's like, no, this guy does. He trains man. It was like what he does. So it was really cool to get that input as well as um, just that like comradery, you know, you guys are always in here. So it's not just at the gym meeting strangers, it's like you know, who you're working with and it's really cool. I can definitely vouch for the family atmosphere and how much it attributes to making this such a unique place. So that brings me to a special events and anything coming up do you, is there anything you guys want to talk about coming up? I know one big thing coming up

Speaker 3:

12:55

parallel to me on saturday this saturday at 9:00 AM to lifting starts. It's a full on competition. Um, it's, it's been sold out for a long time since the beginning of this year and we've been working on this since january just anticipating and we're finally at the week of and it's just dope, you know, it's like our first ever parents me at this gym and even if you're not competing, like still come out and it's $5 to get in the door and just come see what it's all about, you know, it's just, that's really cool, you know, because piloting versus like bodybuilding and other like strength sports or whatever you want to call them. Piloting is very like family issues, you know what I'm saying? The way we treat everybody at the gym and everything we do when you go to a powder, to me that's how everybody is. Everybody wants to help everybody in load weights and unrack weights and just help any way possible and we're just all here for each other. That's a huge thing for me. That's what parenting is all about.

I don't know. I don't even know like, just thinking off the top of any other kind of event like this that's gone on recently in escondido. Can you guys or is this kind of sounds like the first of its kind type of thing?

Speaker 4:

14:25

Right?

Speaker 3:

14:26

You see crossfit do will's little stuff, but,

Speaker 2:

14:30

but lIke the food trucks is on time. I like the food, the whole event. It's like an event, you know, it's not just, it's not just, hey, we're doing something, come check it out. It sounds. It's really cool. I think that's, I'm excited for the event, you know, that'll be a good time and I'm stoked to see people live some heavy stuff. It's always cool to see people's hard work, you know, like. Yeah, you know, just definitely motivating. Yeah, definitely. It's like, oh, I want to get up there for sure. Absolutely. Yeah. That's one of the biggest things. So you see people like they get to their max and they get everything they had been, uh, working for and you're just like, man, hard work pays off, right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. I know when I first started I saw jake working all the time and I was like, dude, that guy's super strongly. I mean, I'm not saying you're not strong now, but like what, like in my standard of strong, you're super strong. Um, so I know we've got the meet sunday. Is there a saturday? Saturday, sorry, saturday the 28th. Is there any other special events or plans that you guys want to talk about for the gym? No, I mean we want to have annette. We want to keep posting at least two a year. Really? Yeah. I definitely want to get it bigger. So

Speaker 3:

15:44

right after this competition we're going to schedule the next one and the next one. I'm a guy that used to work here is going to sponsor the meat and so like a thousand he wants to give a thousand dollars to wounded warriors, thousand dollars to toys for tots. And then he wants to give a thousand dollars to the best lifter

Speaker 2:

16:04

so that's going to make it more interesting at the next meeting. So we're just to build on that,

Speaker 3:

16:07

keep making the cash pot like bigger and bigger every meeting. You know.

Speaker 2:

16:10

That's so cool. You guys are awesome and I really appreciate your time. It sounds like things are going good in the gym, keeps growing. It sounds like you guys take advantage of, you know, building off of every achievement. And so That's super cool. How can people stay in touch with the gym or follow you guys? You guys want to plug maybe your social media or best way for people to get into contact or follow you?

Speaker 3:

16:35

Yeah, I mean you can go to the samsung barbell.com and you can see everything that we have offered there. You can fill out a contact form or is it just sounds url.com. And then you know, we have facebook and instagram to facebook is facebook.com/samson bargo. And then instagram is at samsung barbell onward. So as s a, m, s o, n barbell.

Speaker 2:

16:57

Cool. Cool. Well thank you guys so much. It's been super great catching up with you and learning about all this stuff going on and I guess I'll use your terminology, everybody and finish strong. Boom.

Speaker 1:

17:10

Hey, thanks for tuning into shooting the breeze with geo. Really is the music for this episode is called soda pop and you can check it out@purpleplanet.com along with more of their work. If you liked thiS episode, share it with somebody you know and If you're looking to buy or sell a home in san diego county, work with a realtor who knows your neighborhood, check out real estate.com for more information. Until next time, take care.